This invention relates generally to a method of operating semiconductor memory cells and in particular to a method of operating dynamic semiconductor memory cells with capacitive means for the storage of binary data.
In the prior art, one-transistor memory cells have been utilized in semiconductor memories to achieve maximum packing density. Such memories suffer from the disadvantages of being word organized -- that is at the array level, data is delt with exclusively in columns. As a consequence, to either enter datum in one memory cell or to recall the datum from one memory cell, the data in a column of memory cells must first be recalled from the memory array. Then in the recall process, one bit from the plurality of bits recalled is selected and the data, including the bit of interest, which can be altered, is then re-entered in the memory cells. In the enter datum operation, data from a column of memory cells is first recalled and then together with the new datum, re-entered.
In both cases power consumption is relatively large since a large number of bits is being manipulated. Also the time required to enter a new datum is increased by the requirement of first recalling a column of data.